"Arena Rat" Ultra light indoor RC airplane.

[TooJung2Die]

I love ultra light airplanes. Why did it take me so long to find this forum? Introducing the "Arena Rat", an ultra light indoor RC airplane inspired by the famous rubber powered "Hanger Rat". I posted the build thread over in the Balsa Builders and Breakers forum.
Build Log: Arena Rat

Jon

 

[Madspadder]

What did you cover that with ? A friend of mine used to kit a foam plane called the Ghost that was covered with different colored saran wrap allowing for several color choices and still keeping it super light. Here is a picture of the fuselage in 3 different colors.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Check out the short build thread. It's covered with a film used for sealing yogurt food containers. It measures about 1 mil thick. Buzzbomb suggested I call it "Yo'Play". I have a document listing dozens of covering film weights. Saran Wrap is on the list. It's only about 13.9 g/m2; very close to medium Esaki tissue.

The Ghost fuselage looks like an indoor F3P.

 

[mach1 rc]

I love ultra light airplanes. Why did it take me so long to find this forum? Introducing the "Arena Rat", an ultra light indoor RC airplane inspired by the famous rubber powered "Hanger Rat". I posted the build thread over in the Balsa Builders and Breakers forum.
Build Log: Arena Rat

View attachment 153905

View attachment 153906

Jon

Looks cool😎👍😎👍

 

[Madspadder]

The Ghost was an indoor 3d airplane. Bill Lowe sold lots of these. Bill would cut them out on his laser and his girl friend would do the covering and boxing up. It always amazes how creative people are on these forums.

 

[TooJung2Die]

I found Lowe's Ghost on RCGroups. I like the little 17" version. That was back in the days when depron was still available. I'm interested in that light weight type of skeletonized construction used by the the Ghost and many other F3P 3D airplanes. I'm thinking of lightening an existing 3D design, removing most of the foam and covering with film like the Ghost. I think today we can substitute Dollar Tree foam with the paper removed or Model Plane Foam if you don't mind the expense.

 

[Madspadder]

I bought a case of the Model Planet Foam. I think it was around $3.00 a sheet. The foam was not as stiff as depron but worked ok. This is really the only choice other than fan fold sheets from places like Menards.

 

[TooJung2Die]

I bought a case of the Model Planet Foam. I think it was around $3.00 a sheet.

I went in with a RC friend on some 6mm Model Plane Foam. Including the shipping it was $6.00 a sheet. I wasn't terribly happy with the quality. It has a curl and a wavy surface. You can bend out the curl. It is stronger than dollar store foam with the paper is removed and the sheets are larger, 24"x48". I'd like to try that 1/4" fanfold but you have to buy an enormous quantity; 50 feet! It's only econonmical if you have some friends go in on the purchase.

 

[Madspadder]

I looked at what I paid for a case of 16 sheets. A case of grade A for $40.00 plus $25.00 for shipping which works out to about $4.00 a sheet shipped to Illinois. I agree it wasn't the best, but it had no skin , was clean and white. The grade B is cheaper and much wavier. I usually just buy the fan fold from Menards. I end up using a lot more carbon fiber or laminating sections on larger build for strength.

 

[eyeFLYfome]

What did you cover that with ? A friend of mine used to kit a foam plane called the Ghost that was covered with different colored saran wrap allowing for several color choices and still keeping it super light. Here is a picture of the fuselage in 3 different colors.

I LOVED my ghost. earned 3d with it. would love another. that was 14-15 years ago.

 

[Inq]

I love ultra light airplanes. Why did it take me so long to find this forum? Introducing the "Arena Rat", an ultra light indoor RC airplane inspired by the famous rubber powered "Hanger Rat". I posted the build thread over in the Balsa Builders and Breakers forum.
Build Log: Arena Rat

View attachment 153905

View attachment 153906

Jon

• That sound like something I'd like to try... I bought one of those little twin servo units like you have, but it didn't come with any instructions. Do you have any reference links for it?
• Also, what is the all-up weight and battery used for something like that?

VBR,
Inq

 

[TooJung2Die]

• That sound like something I'd like to try... I bought one of those little twin servo units like you have, but it didn't come with any instructions. Do you have any reference links for it?
• Also, what is the all-up weight and battery used for something like that?

VBR,
Inq

I don't have a link but I can tell you the brick I used came from a WLToys F949 Cessna 182. It uses the FlySky transmitter AFHDS protocol. I'm familiar with it because I bought a WLToys F949 Cessna and bind it to a FlySky FS-i6 transmitter. Search for the manual for the F949 Cessna. It's a commonly used receiver brick. I liked the little Cessna so much I couldn't ruin it to use the receiver so I bought the F949 receiver separately.

I once weighed the receiver, motor, prop and battery together. Altogether they weigh 22 grams.

All up weight of the Arena Rat is about 55 grams or 2 oz.



Jon

 

[Inq]

Search for the manual for the F949 Cessna.

Thank you I'll do that.

 

[Inq]

I have a document listing dozens of covering film weights.

I saw your note... Is that something you wouldn't mind sharing? I've never thought about anything in this weight category before and wondering what kind of materials can be used. Hopefully some that are readily available in rural America. I just don't have a feel for it.

Found references to the Cessna, and that there might be at least two different receivers. All manuals seemed to be about end-user flying the plane type manuals. But nothing about how to hook up to it or especially bind to my Flysky FS-i6X. Mine says its a WL-F949R. That Google search got me a grand total of 3 hits! Two were Banggood and no longer valid. The third was in Chinese. Maybe you might have this figured out...

1. From the Cessna, I did figure this works on standard 3.7 Lipo as input to the red/black leads.
2. Am I correct this has an ESC built-in. If so... is it the 3 prong socket for brushless or the 2 prong socket for brushed motors?
3. What is the other socket for?
4. Binding, I typically use a jump wire on the receiver and hit the bind button. What did you do for this receiver?

I hope you can help. Thanks.

 

[Tench745]

I bought a case of the Model Planet Foam. I think it was around $3.00 a sheet. The foam was not as stiff as depron but worked ok. This is really the only choice other than fan fold sheets from places like Menards.

I realize this is an older thread, but I thought I would weigh in since MPF is going away.
https://www.rcdepron.com/ Is the US distributor of depron foam and has a number of thicknesses available in large or small packages.

 

[Tench745]

I saw your note... Is that something you wouldn't mind sharing? I've never thought about anything in this weight category before and wondering what kind of materials can be used. Hopefully some that are readily available in rural America. I just don't have a feel for it.

Found references to the Cessna, and that there might be at least two different receivers. All manuals seemed to be about end-user flying the plane type manuals. But nothing about how to hook up to it or especially bind to my Flysky FS-i6X. Mine says its a WL-F949R. That Google search got me a grand total of 3 hits! Two were Banggood and no longer valid. The third was in Chinese. Maybe you might have this figured out...
View attachment 232242

1. From the Cessna, I did figure this works on standard 3.7 Lipo as input to the red/black leads.
2. Am I correct this has an ESC built-in. If so... is it the 3 prong socket for brushless or the 2 prong socket for brushed motors?
3. What is the other socket for?
4. Binding, I typically use a jump wire on the receiver and hit the bind button. What did you do for this receiver?

I hope you can help. Thanks.

Looked up the board. Near as I can tell it has an ESC for a brushed motor. The 2-pin socket is for the motor and the 3-pin socket is for an aileron channel...

Some further digging brought up this post about the board over on RCGroups. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3318419-WLtoys-F949-flight-control-board

 

[Inq]

Looked up the board. Near as I can tell it has an ESC for a brushed motor. The 2-pin socket is for the motor and the 3-pin socket is for an aileron channel...

Some further digging brought up this post about the board over on RCGroups. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?3318419-WLtoys-F949-flight-control-board

Thank you for the digging... I don't have bandwidth at home to stream, but I'll certainly check it out tomorrow at the library.

 

[TooJung2Die]

I saw your note... Is that something you wouldn't mind sharing? I've never thought about anything in this weight category before and wondering what kind of materials can be used. Hopefully some that are readily available in rural America. I just don't have a feel for it.

Found references to the Cessna, and that there might be at least two different receivers. All manuals seemed to be about end-user flying the plane type manuals. But nothing about how to hook up to it or especially bind to my Flysky FS-i6X. Mine says its a WL-F949R. That Google search got me a grand total of 3 hits! Two were Banggood and no longer valid. The third was in Chinese. Maybe you might have this figured out...
View attachment 232242

1. From the Cessna, I did figure this works on standard 3.7 Lipo as input to the red/black leads.
2. Am I correct this has an ESC built-in. If so... is it the 3 prong socket for brushless or the 2 prong socket for brushed motors?
3. What is the other socket for?
4. Binding, I typically use a jump wire on the receiver and hit the bind button. What did you do for this receiver?

I hope you can help. Thanks.

1. Yes, it uses a standard 3.7V 1S lipo.
2. Yes, it has a brushed ESC built in. It uses the 2-pin connector. Reverse the wires if the motor runs backwards.
3. The 3-pin connector is for a third servo, like ailerons.
4. Binding is no hassle. Plug in receiver battery. Hold down bind button and turn on transmitter. Turn transmitter off/on. It's ready to fly. You have to repeat the procedure every time you change batteries in the airplane but after you've done it a couple of times it becomes natural.
5. The FlySky FS-i6 transmitter has to be changed in setup to use AFHDS for the model in memory. Default is AFHDS-2a and won't work.

I attached the PDF document listing covering weight and thickness.

Hope this helps,
Jon

 

[BrickPlane]

This stuff is super cool! Is there such a thing as an indoor plane slow enough to fly in a living room? I'm imagining something that flies like the Vapor. I.e., permanently in high alpha.

 

[TooJung2Die]

Mine says its a WL-F949R.

I'm looking at the questions and answers on Banggood for the new WLToys F-949s brick. It no longer uses the FlySky AFHDS protocol but uses MT99XX, whatever that means. Your F-949R might use something other than the old FlySky protocol too.